This talk is based on Babül's book, which traces the establishment of human rights as a governmental standard in Turkey, in tandem with the country's pending accession to the European Union (EU). Focusing on human rights training programs for Turkish government workers that are conducted to fulfill EU membership requirements, the book uncovers how transnational standardization schemes and programs for good governance affect local bureaucracies. It maps out how the translation of human rights to markers of good governance, such as professionalization and expertise shapes both the enactment of the state and the politics of human rights in Turkey. Based on long-term fieldwork between 2007-2014, the book articulates both the perils and the promises of these programs for the subjects and objects of governance in the country.

Elif Babül is an assistant professor of anthropology at Mount Holyoke College.